Jack Dorsey: Bitcoin Is "Best Manifestation" of a Native Internet Currency
When Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey spoke to the Australian Financial Review in September 2019, he appeared interested in Bitcoin as a store of value, but unsure about its potential as a currency, stating that “it’s not functional as a currency. The peaks and troughs are like an investment asset and are equivalent to gold.”
Just over a year later, in an interview with Reuters this week, the Silicon Valley billionaire reaffirmed his support for Bitcoin, now describing it as “the best manifestation” of the internet’s desire for a native currency. "I can't see that changing," Dorsey added, referencing the network effects the leading cryptocurrency has over so-called altcoins.
Jack Dorsey Doesn't See Bitcoin's Dominance Changing
Bitcoin's primacy comes down to the fact that anyone can join the community and work on solutions to boost Bitcoin's adoption, Dorsey explained. He compared the internet to Bitcoin, explaining that both networks are consensus-driven and open for anyone to develop, promote, and adapt.
Dorsey first famously promoted Bitcoin to Joe Rogan and his millions of listeners of his podcast the Joe Rogan Experience in February of 2019. While Dorsey had previously hinted at his interest in Bitcoin during prior interviews, his podcast with Rogan was the first time he coherently expressed his views on the leading cryptocurrency. At the time, he said:
"I believe the internet will have a native currency and I don’t know if it’s Bitcoin. I think it will be Bitcoin given all the tests it has been through and the principles behind it, how it was created. It was something that was born on the internet, was developed on the internet, was tested on the internet — it is of the Internet."
A month later, Dorsey told Marty Bent of Tales from the Crypt that he had been "maxing out" the purchase limit on Square's Cash App, which is $10,000 worth of bitcoin per week.
Working to Make It Usable
In his recent interview with Reuters, Dorsey asserted there is a need to make Bitcoin payments as accessible and efficient as using paper cash in brick-and-mortar settings:
Two big things [to focus on]: first, transaction times and efficiency — making it time-effective and cost-effective, and second, that it be intuitive to people why they might use it and what it is. They should be able to use it in a way that feels similar to handing over paper cash.
Dorsey is working to ease Bitcoin's barrier to entry through Square, a multi-billion-dollar financial technology company he heads.
Square's Cash App supports the purchase and sale of bitcoin. Square also has a cryptocurrency arm - the fittingly-named Square Crypto - that contributes to the wider Bitcoin ecosystem through open-source development, grants, and its Lightning Developer Kit.
Square Crypto unveiled the Lightning Developer Kit in January in order to allow developers to more easily integrate the Lightning Network into existing wallet applications. Square Crypto believes that the Lightning Network is crucial in making "instant, low-fee bitcoin payments as common as cash used to be."
This segment of the company is also actively funding Bitcoin developers and designers, having hired four as full-time employees and distributed grants to a number in the community.